'Allergic' to Exercise? The Perfect Workout Takes Only a Minute!

At the start of every year, we all put to “become healthier” and do (some) “workout” in our list of New Year’s resolutions. The problem is it's difficult to jump-start the habit especially when all of us feel we don't have enough time in the day to fit it everything we need to do.

Well, we have some good news from you. It turns out that you can get away with as little as one minute of exercise a day, and you’ll get the same results as, say, a 45-minute workout!

Sounds too good to be true? Not really.

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Researchers at the McMaster University in Ohio in the United States tested it out on three groups of “out-of-shape young men.” One group did no exercise at all (the control group) and a second group exercised on a stationary bicycle for 45 minutes at a moderate pace with a two-minute warm up and three-minute cool down. A third group did interval training — they rode a stationary bicycle and pedaled as hard as they could for 20 seconds, shifted to a slower pace for two minutes, then went all-out again for the final 20 seconds. For the third group, the entire workout lasted a total of 10 minutes, but only one minute was strenuous.

After 12 weeks, researchers found that the men who did interval training had the same gains as those who did the 45-minute workout. Their endurance increased by 20%, insulin resistance improved, and “there were significant increases in the number and function of certain microscopic structures in the men’s muscles that are related to energy production and oxygen consumption,” as reported by the New York Times.

The study, published in the journal Plos One, shows that whether you do 60 seconds of strenuous exercise or a 45-minute moderate workout, you may get the same results. Your health and fitness levels can improve, plus you’ll be doing it in less time. It’s a win-win situation!

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It's worth noting, however, that the study stresses that the one-minute exercise should be strenuous, meaning you’ll have to exert greater efforts for the duration of the workout. Similar exercises are called High-Intensity Interval Training or H.I.I.T. — tough but short exercises that will push your body to its limits.

MartinGibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University and who oversaw the study tells the New York Times, “If you are someone like me, who just wants to boost health and fitness and you don’t have 45 minutes or an or to work out, our data shows that you can get big benefits from even a single minute of intense exercise.”

If you’ve written “start working out” on your New Year’s resolutions for 2018, then consider committing to these one-minute drills. No more excuses, moms!